Brunet Theater
The Brunet Theater (Spanish: Teatro Brunet) was the main theater in the then village of Trinidad in Cuba in the 19th century . Today only its ruins remain.
history
At the beginning of the 19th century the city of Trinidad flourished economically and developed from a village to a prosperous city due to the sugar cultivation and the associated slave trade. Until the middle of the 19th century, Trinidad was one of the most important sugar cities in Cuba. Tobacco growing and cattle breeding also flourished, so that the population quadrupled between 1780 and 1830.
In 1839 Count Brunet , a respected citizen of the city, received a contract from the captain general of the island to build the theater, which opened in 1840 and named after its owner, Count Brunet. In 1849 Don Justo Germán Cantero bought it for 17,000 pesos , according to the historian of the city of Trinidad Manuel de J. Béquer . The theater remained in the family until around 1883.
Around the 1860s, the city of Trinidad fell into a deep economic crisis from which it never recovered and fell into a state of stagnation. Despite this situation, the theater remained active for the rest of the century, giving many performances by major theater groups.
Like other important Cuban theaters of the period, the Brunet suspended its performances with the outbreak of the Ten Years War (1868–1878) and was converted into a barracks of the Spanish army, which damaged its structure. After the war ended, the theater resumed its work, but was closed again with the start of the war of emergency (1895–1898).
During this war the Spanish army dismantled part of the structure and looked for metal to melt bullets. This caused the roof to collapse. After the end of this war, the building was already badly dilapidated, so that it no longer resumed its functions. What was left of the building collapsed in 1901, only the ruins of the entrance remained.
swell
- Orlando Martínez Rodríguez and Teresa Turiño López: La Trinidad de Cuba: Medio milenio de venturas y desventuras. In: Contribuciones a las Ciencias Sociales (Spanish)
- Cuba. Karl Baedeker GmbH, Ostfildern 1999/2000, ISBN 3-89525-476-2
- Archivo Municipal de Trinidad; Los museos y otras instituciones culturales de Trinidad (spanish)
Coordinates: 22 ° N , 80 ° W